The legal battle between Bethesda and Interplay over the rights to make an MMO based on the Fallout franchise has at last been resolved. Basically: Bethesda wins, but owes Interplay $2 million.

The story goes that back in 1997, Interplay created the first Fallout game, an RPG that became a big hit on the PC. This was followed by Interplay’s sequels Fallout: Tactics and Fallout 2. The series then languished in development hell for ten long years before Bethesda acquired the rights to create sequels to the series, and developed Fallout 3, which transformed the top-down RPG into a first-person shooter hybrid, a la Mass Effect or Deus Ex. It was a hit, and spawned loads of DLC and eventually Fallout: New Vegas.

In late 2006, while Bethesda was hard at work on Fallout 3, the people at Interplay decided they wanted to create an MMO based on the franchise. Bethesda executives gave a provisional okay, so long as Interplay could raise the $30 million needed to build the game, and start development by April 2009. That date came and gone with no MMO funding on Interplay’s part, but they refused to give back the rights, saying they would still create the game eventually. Bethesda balked, wanting back the rights to create the Fallout MMO themselves. And the inevitable legal battle ensued.

Earlier this month, the court ruled in Bethesda’s favor, awarding them the entire franchise and all rights to future Fallout game development including the MMO, although Interplay still has the right to sell their original three Fallout games for two more years, and Bethesda is required to pay Interplay $2 million. Both parties are required to pay their own legal costs for the five-year battle.

It should be noted that just because Bethesda now has the right to build a Fallout-based MMO doesn’t mean they’ll do so immediately. But hey — they wouldn’t have sunk five years of legal costs and a $2 million settlement into this if they had no intention of doing it at all.

Rage screenshot

Rage is an attempt by the makers of Doom and Quake to step outside of the box and do something unexpected. On that goal, they’ve succeeded, but you’ll never be confused about who made the game.

I wanted to love Rage. I tried hard. I was excited to play it. But my interest waned after the first hour, when I realized how little depth there was beneath its oh-so-flashy surface.

As Id Software’s first brand new IP in fifteen years, Rage is a very intentional step in a new direction for the veteran developer. And it’s about time. Id made its name with the Doom and Quake franchises, but the modern gamer expects a deeper, more customized experience from a triple-A title, with storytelling on par with a big-screen movie.

Rage screenshot

Rage takes place in the future, after an asteroid strikes Earth and wipes out most of its population. The decayed ruins of our society serve as the backdrop for this apocalyptic wasteland, which is now populated with anarchic mutant gangs and hardened human colonies who are just trying to survive. You play as a member of an Ark — cryogenic pods buried deep underground before the asteroid struck, carrying slumbering scientists and whatnot in a plan to repopulate our species, post-cataclysm. Now, years later, you awaken and emerge to find a world that’s nothing like the one you remember.

If this setting sounds familiar, it is; it’s nearly identical to the backstories of both Fallout and Borderlands. What Id brings to this crowded table is an incredible sense of scope, and utterly gorgeous scenery. And of course, the vehicles. (More on that in a minute.) It’s impossible to heap too much praise on the IdTech 5 engine, the new crown jewel of Id Software’s technology library. Not only does Id5 allow for jaw-droppingly beautiful graphics, but it smokes, too. Not once during my time with the game was there so much as a tiny hiccup with the frame rate. Even the high-speed vehicles cause no problem for the rendering engine, allowing the environment to fly by at a supersonic pace without ever losing resolution. It makes for remarkably exhilarating driving when you speed through the sun-soaked wastelands thanks to the engine’s beautiful, fluid motion.

Rage screenshot

Id5 comes with all sorts of fancy bells and whistles that help Rage stand out. Since distant areas on the map are loaded in the background while you play, for example, there are no tedious load times to wait through. The Id5 engine seamlessly transitions from indoor to outdoor environments — and on to racing those glorious vehicles — all as part of one big world, with no “sections” or “levels” divvying things up. It’s a small thing that you might not even notice for a while, but it lends a tremendous sense of realism to the game world.

There are so many good ideas poured into Rage, that it should have been a genre-defining ball-buster. It starts with all the trappings for a great story: interesting characters and locations, cool enemies and fun weapons, and endless potential in those crazy fast vehicle races. But somehow over the course of its 10-ish hour solo campaign, it squanders most of its potential by forgetting what made it so interesting in the first place. All those cool elements are quickly replaced with a standard, level-and-grind mentality that makes for an ultimately hollow experience.

Rage

It’s the gameplay where Rage falls short. Id clearly wanted to create an RPG/shooter, but just couldn’t stop themselves from building a standard dungeon shooter. Missions are repetitive almost immediately, with inactive NPCs sending you out on a vehicle to some nearby location, where you’ll run in and wipe out mutant gang types in order to earn the trust of the locals. There are variations to this formula, of course, but after a while you can’t help feeling like a glorified exterminator who keeps getting called in to take care of a local pest problem.

Weapons give the game a welcome dose of creativity, particularly when you start to customize them. The same goes for vehicles, and the gadgets you can create using found materials. But all of this RPG-style customization has been done before — and sadly, it’s been done a lot better. The most frustrating part is that you never really feel like upgrading your weapons or purchasing more powerful ones give you you much of an edge. The enemies use the same tactics time and again, and your defensive and offensive tools never vary all that much in the amount of damage they do.

Rage screenshot

Rage is meant to be a giant leap outside the box for Id Software, with its vast, sunny outdoor areas and numerous RPG elements. Yet for all the new elements thrown in, Rage maintains that core Id feel. Particularly in the indoor areas, where you proceed from one room to the next while monstrous enemies jump out of hiding and barrel straight toward you (though some are smart enough to use guns and cover). And then there are the indoor hideouts for the mutant gangs, which often contain the standard type of satanic imagery (skulls, pentagrams, etc.) that id uses so frequently. Okay, we get it already: these guys are the black hats. In that way, Rage feels like Doom 3 on LSD. The sights are so beautiful they’re intoxicating, and it’s dressed up with some welcome RPG trappings, but underneath it’s the same old, same old. It’s got plenty of muscle. What it needs is a soul.

Rage is definitely something fresh for Id, but for everyone else, it’s been there, done that. For my money, it is worth playing for its amazing graphics alone; if there’s one thing Id knows how to do, it’s build an incredible game engine. But wait for the price to come down. Sight-seeing isn’t enough to justify a $60 price tag.

If Id really wants to grow and evolve, it needs to find a way to get unstuck from the “dungeon grinding” mindset. That may have worked in the 80s and 90s, but this is the 21st Century, and we expect more from our games.

Win a copy of Rage for the PS3 here

Bethesda and id Software have planned six entries in this behind-the-scenes series, which are four-to-five minutes long each. The first tackles building blocks like id’s history as the creators of such storied franchises as Doom and Quake. The second video examines how this brand new story and vision of the future was dreamed up and crafted. The third installment shows off the full range of weapons you’ll have access to in Rage.

I can’t decide whether this is a game I want to play or not. There’s tremendous potential in it, and there can be no doubt that id knows what it’s doing, but after Fallout and Borderlands, I have to wonder how many post-nuclear-apocalypse games can co-exist.

So what do you think? Are you looking forward to Rage?

Win a copy of Rage for the PS3 here

When Bethesda Softworks announces a brand new title, gamers shut up and pay attention. Okay, so they’ve had a few clunkers (not sure what they were thinking with Wet, and I still can’t make much progress with Brink), but this is the studio that brings us The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, for crying out loud. And their current games in development, including Rage and Prey 2, look stunning.

Today we add to that list Dishonored, a brand new franchise from Bethesda subsidiary Arkane Studios. You may know Arkane as the developer behind Arx Fatalis, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.

Arkane was acquired by Bethesda last year, and Dishonored is the first game to come out of this new business relationship. Game Informer has (as usual) landed the exclusive reveal of Dishonored, and their website is already teasing their August cover story with a few details about the craftsmen behind this game.

In addition to Arkane’s founder Raf Colantonio, Dishonored is being co-created by Harvey Smith, lead designer of the original Deus Ex. According to Game Informer, Viktor Antonov is also part of the creative team; gamers may not know his name, but we definitely know his work. He designed City 17 for Half-Life 2.

Next to nothing has been revealed about Dishonored so far; all we know is that it’s a first-person shooter being made for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, with a planned release sometime next year. Game Informer is going to reveal more when its new issue hits newsstands July 15th, but the tease on their website makes the game sound wildly innovative, with your moral choices affecting the entire game world.

Intrigued yet?

Killian Samuels is about to go where no man has gone before. In Prey 2 — a sequel just barely connected to its namesake — this air marshal is quite literally “abducted by aliens” while on an air flight, no less. After being taken to the alien world Exodus, via circumstances yet to be revealed, Samuels decides to accept this new life that fate has dealt him and becomes a bounty hunter there, using his skills to take on jobs and generally fight the (good? bad?) fight.

The disparities between Prey and Prey 2 are so extreme that they could be entirely different franchises. The first game was about a Native American who’s taken aboard an alien craft, and who uses portals and differing gravity (on walls, ceilings, etc.) to make his way through a huge alien spacecraft and basically shoot anything that moves. It was a throwback to the early days of first-person shooters (appropriate since it was originally conceived of by 3D Realms, the folks who created Duke Nukem), but despite the upside-down disorientation factor, there was nothing terribly compelling about the game. In order to build it into a franchise, Prey was a game in need of an identity.

Prey 2 departs from the original’s formula in every way, with the sole exception of the abduction scenario. Instead of portals and artificial gravity, Prey 2 puts you in the sprawling, “alien noir” cityscapes of Exodus, where the Coruscant-like structures create an environment that’s more vertical. Samuels will make his way through this landscape using loads of cool gadgets and weapons. Instead of claustrophobic corridors filled with nothing but enemies and walking on walls, you’ll climb up and down and across dark metros filled with NPCs going about their daily lives. Instead of being an average joe trying to get home, you’re an experienced soldier who knows how to handle himself and take care of business, yet living as a member of this alien society.

The “levels” of Prey 2, constructed in an “alien noir” style using the id Tech 5 engine (Rage), are a vast, open world chocked full of choices. You’ll have the freedom to do as you like, reacting to random encounters — like pedestrian muggings or meeting an informant — in whatever way you choose. Walk the path of light, or be as dirty as you want. You’ll take advantage of cover, select from a wide array of clever weapons, and explore the seediest corners of this “Blade Runner in space.”

Ultimately, Killian Samuels’ personal mission is to find out why he was brought here, and what happened after he arrived. It seems there’s a years-long gap in his memory between his original abduction and when he finds himself working as a bounty hunter on the alien world Exodus. The elaborate backstory was constructed by Human Head, the developers behind the game (who also created the first game), so that this time out, they could explore the hunter/prey relationship from both sides of the coin. (Whereas in the original, you mostly served as the prey.)

The original Prey did nothing for me, but I’m actually kind of psyched about this one’s potential.

A final trailer has been released for Brink, the new IP from Bethesda Softworks and Splash Damage, in anticipation of its launch. Which coincidentally, happens to be today. Brink hopes to redefine the “online universe” genre for the first-person shooter generation.

It’s all too rare that a new franchise is launched in the video game world these days, as most publishers find it easier to put their faith in sequels of past hits. So anytime a new triple-A property makes it to stores, that’s cause for celebration in my book.

As I’ve explained before, Brink is a cross between an MMO and an FPS, allowing you to drop-in/drop-out of its storyline campaign solo or online with friends. Its art direction is stylish, with caricature-like humans that feature nearly infinite customization, and bright, outdoor terrains set amid a gleaming, futuristic floating city. Its breakneck-paced fights include cool parkour moves that are easy to pull off yet look crazy cool in the heat of battle. And its storyline — about an eco-friendly experimental civilization that becomes a haven for humanity after Earth undergoes an apocalyptic change — is all too timely.

Bethesda was kind enough to send along a review copy of Brink, and I look forward to diving in to provide you with a full review once I’ve had a chance to put it through its paces.

Will I see you there?

Today, Bethesda let loose a whole slew of new screenshots from all of their upcoming titles, and they’re sell-a-kidney-to-afford-these-games good. Get yourself a bib to sop up all the drool that’s about to escape from your mouth, and then click on these thumbnails for some gorgeous, thrilling, terrifying, glorious new images of places that don’t exist that you’re going to want to visit right now.

Which title are you looking forward to most?

Bethesda just announced that they’re dropping Brink on the gaming public one week earlier than planned. So if you’re scratching your head, wondering just what Brink is and why you should care (and I assure you, you should), we’ve got the goods right here.

Developed by game studio Splash Damage, Brink is a new breed of MMO for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Others have attempted to make a first-person shooter that works as a multiplayer online world, but no one’s really succeeded. Brink brings some new ideas to the formula, with a single player campaign and a multiplayer campaign that are interchangeable. You can play through the campaign by yourself, or take it online anytime you want to play alongside your friends. Go back and forth, playing the game any way you want.

The setup for Brink is thus: Earth’s oceans have risen to such levels that every land mass is now underwater (which is where its similarities to the movie Waterworld begin and thankfully, end). Years before the oceans rose, a man-made floating city was constructed off the coast of San Francisco called the Ark. The Ark was planned as a self-sufficient, green habitat for its 5,000 forward-thinking inhabitants. But this supposedly utopian society (BioShock, we’re looking at you) is disrupted when the ocean disaster strikes, causing thousands of refugees to rush to its artificial shores and magnifying its occupancy to above 50,000.

With too little food, water, and clothing to support so many, two social classes quickly emerge: the eco-friendly, high-minded founders of the Ark, and the lower-class society that forms around the refugees. The Ark’s Security forces are constantly fending off offensives by the Resistance, who mostly inhabit the shanty town that’s been cobbled together on the outskirts of the floating city. Security deems the Resistance to be terrorists, while the Resistance believe they’re fighting for their very survival under the boot of their cruel overlords.

(Personally, I’m curious about what calamity caused the oceans to rise so fast. That’s a big mystery that jumps out at me. But I have no idea if the game plans to address this.)

Brink allows you to choose which side you want to play on: Security or Resistance. You begin developing your character immediately in the single player campaign, but that development continues as you play alongside friends in co-op and/or multiplayer. The customization options are nearly endless, with more options unlocking the longer you play.

One of Brink‘s key selling points is its “interpretive movement system” called SMART, whereby characters use fancy parkour moves to navigate any environment they’re in automatically. SMART stands for “smooth movement across random terrain,” and it determines whatever movement you need to undertake, be it vaulting, climbing, sliding, seeking cover, and more, and with a single button press, makes it happen fluidly, using some sweet character animations. Here’s a video that demonstrates the SMART movement system:

Check out the screenshots below, and then get ready for a true FPS/MMO when Brink arrives on May 10th.

The “dungeon crawl” experience is a staple of video gaming. Found predominantly in RPGs and MMOs, the term is used to describe enclosed spaces, where players hack and slash their way through winding corridors, collecting loot as they go.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge is atempting to bring demon crawls into the 21st century by fusing the genre with the mechanics of a first-person shooter with two player co-op. Hunted is set in the dark ages of a world called Kala Moor, when vile creatures have risen from beneath the earth, and villagers on the surface have begun to disappear. Mercenaries E’lara, an expert in ranged weapons, and Caddoc, a master swordsman, are contracted to track down the kidnapped villagers. Needless to say, with visuals like the ones you can see in the screenshot gallery below, things get pretty twisted.

Clearly, the developers at inXile Entertainment take the “dungeon” part of dungeon crawl very seriously. Along this co-op journey, you and a friend will fend off wave after wave of enemies, and work puzzles that require both players to work together. June 3rd is when you’ll be able to find Hunted: The Demon’s Forge in stores for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows. Publisher Bethesda just released this new trailer that shows off the co-op gameplay.

Bethesda Softworks has announced the development of Prey 2, and released this teaser trailer to prove it. It’s not often that game studios create live action trailers for their games unless it’s a game with motion controls. This one finds the Prey franchise going all Cloverfield, with a pedestrian’s handheld camera on an airplane following everyday passengers who get caught up in… Well, that would be a spoiler. Let’s just say there’s a sky marshall involved, and according to Joystiq, said sky marshall will be the protagonist you control in the game.

Prey 2 is being built on Bethesda’s id Tech 5 software (aka, the Rage engine) by Human Head Studios, the same developer that made the first game (though that game was published by Take 2 Interactive). Look for it to arrive sometime in 2012.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim features the return of dragons to the Elder Scrolls universe, using a brand new graphics engine. Bethesda’s commitment to great storytelling is on full display in this trailer, as is that stunning new engine, and the results speak for themselves. The trailer features entirely in-game video. The Elder Scrolls franchise has always been characterized by massive, open worlds where you can play any way you want, and Skyrim promises to take that premise in bold new directions.

Be sure to watch this one in full 720p resolution. It’s worth it.

Here are the game’s first screenshots.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim will be in stores November 11th, 2011, for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

The new add-on, called The Pitt, will be made available on March 24. This is about two months after Operation Anchorage, Fallout 3′s first expansion, was released. The Pitt will feature new achievements and will be set in the raider city that came out of the ruins of Pittsburgh. The player will make a decision to join one of two factions (the slaves and the raiders) in an intensifying conflict in the town. As with Operation Anchorage, The Pitt will be exclusive only to the PC and the Xbox 360.

April will see the final expansion of Fallout 3, Broken Steel.